OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in 2016, rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023.

The spacecraft carries five instruments that will remotely evaluate the surface of Bennu.

After more than a year of asteroid reconnaissance, the spacecraft will collect samples of at least 60 grammes and return them to Earth for scientists to study, NASA said.

"Successfully passing mission CDR is a major accomplishment, but the hard part is still in front of us - building, integrating and testing the flight system in support of a tight planetary launch window," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt.

Key mission objectives focus on finding answers to basic questions about the composition of the very early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made life possible on Earth.

The mission will also aid NASA's asteroid initiative and support the agency's efforts to understand the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects and characterise those suitable for future asteroid exploration missions.

In January, NASA invited people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard the spacecraft.